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South Korea Unveils $5.1 Billion Ulsan AI Data Center in Partnership with AWS

President Lee Jae Myung has promised sweeping tax incentives alongside regulatory reforms to propel South Korea’s bid for global AI leadership.

President Lee Jae Myung (C), SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won (3rd from L) and other participants take part in a ceremony at the Exhibition and Convention Center in the southeastern industrial city of Ulsan on June 20, 2025, to launch a project to build an artificial intelligence (AI) data center to be jointly built by SK Group and Amazon Web Services. Lee vowed to provide full-scale support for the AI industry, aiming to position it as South Korea's next major economic growth driver. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
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Overview

  • SK Group and Amazon Web Services have formed a 15-year partnership, committing 7 trillion won ($5.11 billion), including $4 billion from AWS, to build the country’s largest AI infrastructure.
  • The Ulsan facility will house 60,000 high-performance GPUs and provide 103 megawatts of power capacity to meet surging AI compute demand.
  • Operations are scheduled to begin in 2027, with the project expected to generate up to 78,000 direct and indirect jobs as it scales.
  • Ulsan was selected for its stable power access via SK Gas’s LNG cogeneration plant and its supportive industrial environment for large-scale data centers.
  • Global data center demand is forecast to reach $437.3 billion by 2030, with AI-specific requirements growing at an annual rate of 33 percent.